Today I drove to the shopping plaza in order to go to the sports exchange and order C his soccer uniform except that the sports exchange wasn't at that particular shopping plaza - that one reference by both my husband and I as "the shopping plaza where Amigos restaurant used to be."
So I asked a co-worker who had better information than I, and then called to ask them if I was in danger of being too late to place my order. Thankfully, I have until Saturday so there's still time but before I got off the phone with them I caught myself asked, "so you're in the plaza where White Hen Pantry used to be?"
Where Amigos used to be?
Where White Hen Pantry used to be?
Could I please reference a store that's still in business please and not just one that only exist in my own mind?
On my way home from work I stopped at the coffee shop and read a flyer advertising a showing of Casablanca commemorating the movie's 70th anniversary.
I remember seeing a special showing of Casablanca that commemorating the movie's 50th anniversary at the Wilton Town Hall Theater in New Hampshire this groovy little theater upstairs at the Wilton Town Hall.
So I was feeling uber old but then I googled the theater guess what? Unlike Amigos and White Hen it's still open!
song: Movin' Out • artist: Billy Joel
Friday, January 31, 2014
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Hand Jive
Tonight Ken asked the twins why they always fight over who has to sleep on the side of the bed that's against the wall and they said that neither of them wanted to sleep on the inside because they were afraid of the hand that might reach up from under the bed and grab them.
I guess that would freak me out too.
song: Hand Jive • artist: Johnny Otis
I guess that would freak me out too.
song: Hand Jive • artist: Johnny Otis
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
Don't Think Twice it's All Right
The recipe for lemon square came from the internet. I suspect the only reason I made them was because there were lemons going to pot in the fridge. I made them once, twice, at least three times before the twins decided they loved them - N so much so that he listed them as his favorite food in the kindergarten "All About Me" project.
But the rub is that the more my kids profess to love them - the harder I find them to make. They stick to the bottom of the pan. The lemon filling doesn't set. The powdered sugar doesn't stick. Yesterday all three of these mishaps befell me. I don't quite know what's going on.
It's like going bowling. You bowl a frame and you're carefree and could careless - and then you notice that things are going pretty well, you're bowling lots of 8s and 9s (which is pretty darn good for some of us) and then suddenly Bam! you bowl a gutter ball and then another and then you're lucky to get a pin or two down. What happened?
You started to care too much about it, that's what. You over thought it. You got too much inside your own head. If you were a Buddhist you might say you got too attached to it.
On the other hand the lemon square were still edible, at least as far as much kids were concerned and as for the bowling, it's not about winning or losing it's about a night out with your kids and looking good in them there bowling shoes.
song: Don't Think Twice it's All Right • artist: Bob Dylan
But the rub is that the more my kids profess to love them - the harder I find them to make. They stick to the bottom of the pan. The lemon filling doesn't set. The powdered sugar doesn't stick. Yesterday all three of these mishaps befell me. I don't quite know what's going on.
It's like going bowling. You bowl a frame and you're carefree and could careless - and then you notice that things are going pretty well, you're bowling lots of 8s and 9s (which is pretty darn good for some of us) and then suddenly Bam! you bowl a gutter ball and then another and then you're lucky to get a pin or two down. What happened?
You started to care too much about it, that's what. You over thought it. You got too much inside your own head. If you were a Buddhist you might say you got too attached to it.
On the other hand the lemon square were still edible, at least as far as much kids were concerned and as for the bowling, it's not about winning or losing it's about a night out with your kids and looking good in them there bowling shoes.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Send me an Angel
The other day the twins asked me why Santa doesn't bring them birthday presents.
I said that it's because Santa has a really good union and so he only has to work once a year and besides it wouldn't be cost effective to fire up the sleigh just to deliver a handful of birthday gifts nightly. He wouldn't get very good reindeer mileage that way and being green is important to Santa.
Secretly though I was thinking - damn! why doesn't Santa bring birthday presents?
While he's at it why doesn't he organize the birthday party and bake the cupcakes too?
Maybe he could talk the Easter bunny into helping out - I mean what the heck does that rabbit do the other 364 days a year?
song: Send me an Angel • artist: Real Life
I said that it's because Santa has a really good union and so he only has to work once a year and besides it wouldn't be cost effective to fire up the sleigh just to deliver a handful of birthday gifts nightly. He wouldn't get very good reindeer mileage that way and being green is important to Santa.
Secretly though I was thinking - damn! why doesn't Santa bring birthday presents?
While he's at it why doesn't he organize the birthday party and bake the cupcakes too?
Maybe he could talk the Easter bunny into helping out - I mean what the heck does that rabbit do the other 364 days a year?
song: Send me an Angel • artist: Real Life
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Hell in a Bucket
Sometimes I'm afraid there might be a special place in hell for mommies who throw out their sons' artwork.
song: Hell in a Bucket • The Grateful Dead
song: Hell in a Bucket • The Grateful Dead
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
High Hopes
There's nothing but irony in the fact that H had to bring home his in-school essay on "What's my Resolution for the New Year,"because it wasn't finished.
What is H's resolution for the new year?
To get his school work done at school rather than having to bring it home for homework.
Not off to an auspicious start.
song: High Hopes • artist: Bruce Springsteen
What is H's resolution for the new year?
To get his school work done at school rather than having to bring it home for homework.
Not off to an auspicious start.
song: High Hopes • artist: Bruce Springsteen
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Handyman Blues
From the end of August up until about two weeks ago our downstairs toilet wasn't working properly.
Flushing it was like playing Russian toilet roulette. It would work fine and then every 5th or 6th flush it would back up.
I may have toned up my butt climbing the stairs constantly to use the upstairs bathroom.
It didn't affect S & N much because they already won't use the downstairs bathroom because they can always find some lone spider holed up in a corner down there - apparently when you're five, spiders are way scarier than overflowing toilets.
You may wonder why I didn't mention this before and I'll tell you.
It's because commenting on your own parenting inadequacies, or on the wacky things that your kids say or do, is funny in a folksy, self-deprecating way but having a broken toilet, well that's just downright embarrassing.
Ken valiantly hauled it outside on the back deck not once, but twice.
What's more embarrassing than having a broken toilet?
Having a broken toilet on your back deck.
He fished foreign objects out of it not once, but twice (tweezers and a metal bracelet).
Who says boys don't wear (and lose) jewelry?
song: Handyman Blues • artist: Billy Bragg
Flushing it was like playing Russian toilet roulette. It would work fine and then every 5th or 6th flush it would back up.
I may have toned up my butt climbing the stairs constantly to use the upstairs bathroom.
It didn't affect S & N much because they already won't use the downstairs bathroom because they can always find some lone spider holed up in a corner down there - apparently when you're five, spiders are way scarier than overflowing toilets.
You may wonder why I didn't mention this before and I'll tell you.
It's because commenting on your own parenting inadequacies, or on the wacky things that your kids say or do, is funny in a folksy, self-deprecating way but having a broken toilet, well that's just downright embarrassing.
Ken valiantly hauled it outside on the back deck not once, but twice.
What's more embarrassing than having a broken toilet?
Having a broken toilet on your back deck.
He fished foreign objects out of it not once, but twice (tweezers and a metal bracelet).
Who says boys don't wear (and lose) jewelry?
song: Handyman Blues • artist: Billy Bragg
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Black Socks
It's hard not to be suspicious when your kid leaves five pairs of socks in the dirty clothes basket but only two pairs of underwear.
Is he changing is socks three times a day or his underwear once a week?
song: Black Socks • artist: Bill Harley
Is he changing is socks three times a day or his underwear once a week?
song: Black Socks • artist: Bill Harley
Monday, January 06, 2014
It's Good to be King
I'm not sure I understand the concept of the king cake.
Isn't a dessert with a coin in it really just a choking hazard?
Well whatever. H won it again this year which is apropos of his name.
song: It's Good to be King • artist: Tom Petty
Isn't a dessert with a coin in it really just a choking hazard?
Well whatever. H won it again this year which is apropos of his name.
song: It's Good to be King • artist: Tom Petty
Saturday, January 04, 2014
Cold Turkey
Offered: Frozen Turkey
While it's nice to give it away - and I hope that if she didn't have any takers she up and took her "never used" turkey to a food pantry - here's a wild suggestion: cook it!
Turkey - it's not just for Thanksgiving.
song: Cold Turkey • artist: John Lennon
You gotta love Freecycle. I know I do.
This frozen turkey, purchased in 2012 "when they were cheap" was up for grabs because the woman who owns said turkey, "needs the freezer space."While it's nice to give it away - and I hope that if she didn't have any takers she up and took her "never used" turkey to a food pantry - here's a wild suggestion: cook it!
Turkey - it's not just for Thanksgiving.
song: Cold Turkey • artist: John Lennon
Friday, January 03, 2014
The List
OMG, The prompt for NaBloPoMo is about list making. I love making on-going lists and crossing off items as they get done. My lists go in their own special notebook not on a digital device, I guess so that I can keep referring to it when the power goes out.
I'd like to title this post Zen and the art of list making.
I started list making in earnest at the beginning of last year when I decided to tackle the age old problem of flitting from one project or chore to another without finishing anything. You know how that works, your pantry cabinets are above the washing machine and so every time you reach for a can or box of pasta you hang up a few items of clothing to dry. Except that that leads you to forget what food item you went back into the laundry room to get in the first place and causes you to make more trips than necessary and the laundry does get hung but it's piecemeal and not very satisfying.
So I brought this problem up during dokusan, which, when you study Zen Buddhism is your one-on-one meeting time with your sensi (teacher). One of the challenges of Zen Buddhism is to always be in the present, to focus on one thing at a time. Sensi, suggested among other things than whenever I head in the laundry room to fetch a jar of spaghetti sauce and notice clean laundry in need of hanging and get tempted to stray from the task at hand, I bow in acknowledgment to the laundry and then get that jar of spaghetti sauce. So I bowed more than a few times and then I started making these lists as I went along - I didn't need to hang the laundry immediately per say, I just needed to write it down so I'd remember to do it later. Then I could stop thinking about it and go back to thinking about that spaghetti sauce.
I regress now and then and put away clean dishes one at a time as I'm walking by the dishwasher but for the most part the list making helps, and even if it takes me a few days to do even some simple task that I've written down - well that's okay too.
album: The List • artist: Rosanne Cash
I'd like to title this post Zen and the art of list making.
I started list making in earnest at the beginning of last year when I decided to tackle the age old problem of flitting from one project or chore to another without finishing anything. You know how that works, your pantry cabinets are above the washing machine and so every time you reach for a can or box of pasta you hang up a few items of clothing to dry. Except that that leads you to forget what food item you went back into the laundry room to get in the first place and causes you to make more trips than necessary and the laundry does get hung but it's piecemeal and not very satisfying.
So I brought this problem up during dokusan, which, when you study Zen Buddhism is your one-on-one meeting time with your sensi (teacher). One of the challenges of Zen Buddhism is to always be in the present, to focus on one thing at a time. Sensi, suggested among other things than whenever I head in the laundry room to fetch a jar of spaghetti sauce and notice clean laundry in need of hanging and get tempted to stray from the task at hand, I bow in acknowledgment to the laundry and then get that jar of spaghetti sauce. So I bowed more than a few times and then I started making these lists as I went along - I didn't need to hang the laundry immediately per say, I just needed to write it down so I'd remember to do it later. Then I could stop thinking about it and go back to thinking about that spaghetti sauce.
I regress now and then and put away clean dishes one at a time as I'm walking by the dishwasher but for the most part the list making helps, and even if it takes me a few days to do even some simple task that I've written down - well that's okay too.
Freeze Frame
To celebrate the new year we joined the Woods Hole toast to the coast parade which features dancers with horns, a jaunty man with a parasol, the spontaneous quoting of Shakespeare (at least I think it was Shakespeare) and other oddities to be found only in Woods Hole.
After toasting the coast we went to Pie in the Sky to try and get our frozen selves a little more toasty only we couldn't because the shop is so tiny that we all ended up at an outside table where once again I lamented that my stainless steel travel mug is so darn insulated that no heat seeps out to warm cold fingers.
After Woods Hole my kids insisted on going back to Old Silver to slip and slide on the ice at the far end of the parking lot, an activity they discovered on New Year's Eve when we went to the beach for the last litter pick up of 2013. They played ice hockey (with ice), ran and slid, and just generally entertained themselves in 28-degree weather for almost an hour.
You think that all your cat needs for entertainment is some wadded up newspaper but all my kids need is a dirty parking lot and some ice.
song: Freeze Frame • artist: J.Giles
After toasting the coast we went to Pie in the Sky to try and get our frozen selves a little more toasty only we couldn't because the shop is so tiny that we all ended up at an outside table where once again I lamented that my stainless steel travel mug is so darn insulated that no heat seeps out to warm cold fingers.
After Woods Hole my kids insisted on going back to Old Silver to slip and slide on the ice at the far end of the parking lot, an activity they discovered on New Year's Eve when we went to the beach for the last litter pick up of 2013. They played ice hockey (with ice), ran and slid, and just generally entertained themselves in 28-degree weather for almost an hour.
You think that all your cat needs for entertainment is some wadded up newspaper but all my kids need is a dirty parking lot and some ice.
song: Freeze Frame • artist: J.Giles
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
New Year's Day
That new year's joke about how "I won't see you again until next year!" never gets old does it?
I let the kids all suggest things for dinner Tuesday night which meant we ended up having mac and cheese, pesto, pot stickers, and I threw in some rice pilaf and broccoli for new measure.
There was so much food on the table I didn't have to cook again until the next year!
song: New Year's Day • artist: U2
I let the kids all suggest things for dinner Tuesday night which meant we ended up having mac and cheese, pesto, pot stickers, and I threw in some rice pilaf and broccoli for new measure.
There was so much food on the table I didn't have to cook again until the next year!
song: New Year's Day • artist: U2
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